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RICHMOND, VA - FEBRUARY 07: Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax presides over the Senate at the Virginia State Capitol, February 7, 2019 in Richmond, Virginia. Virginia state politics are in a state of upheaval, with Governor Ralph Northam and State Attorney General Mark Herring both admitting to past uses of blackface and Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax accused of sexual misconduct.
The Virginia Senate voted to pass a bill on Wednesday that would abolish the death penalty.
The vote stood at 21-17 along party lines, with 21 Democrats in favor and 17 Republicans against the measure.
Virginia Senate Against Death Penalty
One individual abstained from the vote, namely Republican state Sen. Bill Stanley.
The bill, SB 1165, is sponsored by state Sen. Scott Surovell. He is a Democrat and currently awaits approbation by Gov. Ralph Northam, who is also a fellow Democrat.
If the measure is passed into law, it will mark a significant policy change for a state that throughout its centuries-long history, has led the United States in the number of executions it has conducted.
Advocates currently expect the House version of the bill to conveniently clear the Democratic-controlled chamber. According to Northam, he supports the legislation.
Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment was looking to recast the bill in a way that would not eliminate the death penalty entirely but would diminish its scope. However, Norment's proposals were defeated.
The move is paving the way for Virginia to be the 23rd state in the US to end capital punishment. A House version is anticipated to conveniently pass when it goes to a full floor vote.
According to Northam, "The practice is fundamentally inequitable. It is inhumane. It is ineffective. And we know that in some cases, people on death row have been found innocent. It's time for Virginia to join 22 other states and abolish the death penalty. I applaud every Senator who cast a courageous vote today, and I look forward to signing this bill into law," reported Huffpost.
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The move could potentially make the commonwealth one of the first states in the South to eradicate capital punishment.
Virginia Democratic Sen. Scott A. Surovell, who initially sponsored the bill, used racial disparities and wrongful convictions in the application of the death penalty as reasons it should be eliminated.
According to Surovell (D-Fairfax), who sponsored the abolition bill, an estimated 1 in 10 people sentenced to death across the United States had been wrongly convicted.
He stated, "I cannot think of anything that's more awful, unspeakable and wrong for a government to do than to use its power to execute somebody who didn't commit the crime they're accused of," reported The Washington Post.
A similar bill cleared a House committee previously in the day and could come up for a floor vote in the lower chamber by Friday.
Also, according to Surovell, "If we look back 50 years from now, the electric chair, the lethal injection table - they're going to be sitting in a museum. This thing is going to be a museum piece and people are going to look back and wonder how it ever was we used these things," reported Virginia Mercury.
Democrats raised alarm regarding the racial disparities in the application of the death penalty. They pointed to research exhibiting that it does not deter crime.
Republicans pushed for a "no" vote on the bill. They stated it would not provide victims' families a chance at justice and conveyed concerns that people convicted of virulent murders would be eligible for parole.
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